Protagonist And Supporting Character

The second day of the tournament began under a strange atmosphere. The first-year matches ended without incident, and the class the princess belonged to took the championship… Chlust had also done reasonably well as one of its representatives. There had been several matches that looked suspicious no matter how one viewed them, but at least in front of the royal family, everyone had competed fairly and honorably.

And naturally, the source of the strange atmosphere was Rudel. His classmates were battered too, but Rudel’s condition was far worse than theirs. His matches against championship favorites such as Luecke and Unias had simply been that brutal.

Yes, he was completely battered, but…

“It’s finally here! We’re definitely winning the whole thing now!”

He was incredibly energetic. In the stands were Luecke and Unias, who had slipped out of the infirmary… as well as Bargas and the upperclassmen Rudel saw during his morning training sessions. Basil had also joined them to cheer him on.

Across the ring, Aleist and his classmates looked at the battered Rudel and his team and felt reassured. They had been wary of Rudel’s class after watching them fight their way through a bracket packed with powerful opponents, but seeing their condition now convinced them they could win.

The final that followed became an intense battle. Aleist’s class still had plenty of strength to spare, while Rudel’s class desperately clung on. By the time they reached the captain’s match, the score stood at 2–2, and everyone expected the final bout to be worth watching.

Rudel stood opposite Aleist and waited for the referee’s signal. As they waited, Aleist spoke to him.

“Everyone’s really excited, aren’t they… Still, no matter how you look at it, you look terrible. This is supposed to be my big moment, and I’m worried it’ll look like I’m bullying someone weaker than me.”

Unlike the sarcastic Aleist, Rudel was completely serious. He had been waiting for this moment, and considering everything that had happened until now, he even felt Aleist’s taunt was understandable. …But things are different now! With that thought, Rudel raised his wooden sword.

Perhaps because his mind had become completely focused on the match, the pain he had been feeling disappeared.

Seeing Rudel’s lack of reaction, Aleist complained that he was no fun, then raised his own wooden sword. Once the referee confirmed that both were ready, he gave the signal.

The members of the royal family watching from the VIP box held their breath at the battle unfolding before them. This was no longer a match between students in the basic course. The two fighters would not have looked out of place among upperclassmen—or even fully fledged knights—and the entire arena watched in stunned silence.

(M-Master!!! Why are you so beaten up?! At this rate you’ll lose! Master is going to lose!!!)

Fina was panicking internally. Meanwhile, Aileen watched the match and exclaimed,

“How incredibly strong Aleist-sama is!”

He had saved her younger sister and possessed beautiful features. To Aileen, who superimposed him over the knight she had once loved, Aleist was the very image of her ideal knight.

The queen, however, had a completely different impression. She folded the fan that had been covering her mouth and leaned forward slightly as she watched. Sensing that the queen had finally become interested in the match, the king asked for her opinion.

“What do you think? Has something caught your attention?”

After a brief pause, the queen answered.

“Yes. That Rudel, the heir of House Arses, is strong. However… how should I put it? Aleist of House Hardy feels… ‘light.’”

The queen’s eyes were slightly wider than usual as she described Aleist’s strength as light. It was an unusual way to describe someone’s power… but the queen had always favored strong men. Albaha himself had been skilled with the sword in his youth, and one could say that had been part of what attracted her to him. She had assumed watching matches between students—basic-course students at that—would be unbearable because of how crude they would be.

Yet in reality, she had already seen quite a few entertaining matches, especially those involving the heirs of the Three Dukes. Even so…

“How disappointing. …This is the final, and the captain’s match at that, yet one fighter was battered before it even began, while the other’s strength has no weight behind it. Yesterday’s match between Rudel and Unias was still better than this.”

The queen opened her fan again and continued watching. Apparently, she had already lost interest.

“Then who do you think will win?”

At the king’s casual question, the queen answered indifferently.

“Well, the winner will be…”

Unaware of her parents’ conversation, Fina sat expressionlessly and thought,

(My fluffy life! My dream kingdom of fluff!!! Master!!! Do your best!!!)

As always, she remained entirely faithful to her own desires.

The match was proving far more difficult than Aleist had expected. He had believed he surpassed Rudel in both swordsmanship and magic, yet Rudel was not losing to him. If anything, Rudel was winning. Rudel thought,

(Aleist is inferior to Unias in swordsmanship! His magic doesn’t measure up to Luecke’s! It’s not a matter of raw power… Aleist is overwhelmingly lacking in technique. If I’m going to win, I have to exploit that!)

With that in mind, he deflected Aleist’s forceful attacks and waited for opportunities to counter. Ever since the match began, Aleist had been the one pressing forward, yet he had failed to land a single clean hit. Rudel, meanwhile, continued striking him accurately despite being pushed back. Even so, Rudel was dragging along a battered body, so he remained at a disadvantage.

Most of the voices in the arena were cheering for Aleist, the supposed hero who had saved the princess. At first, the support pleased him. But in reality, he simply couldn’t finish the match. Worse, his opponent was Rudel. That Rudel! The useless, arrogant Rudel who existed only to get in his way!!!

“Why do you keep getting in my way… Just fall already!”

Growing irritated and desperate to win, Aleist used a magic sword. Flames wrapped around his wooden blade and shaped themselves into the form of a sword. But the resulting weapon was more than twice the size of a person. Aleist swung it around and launched a furious offensive against Rudel.

“You! Someone like you! Just disappear alreadyyyyy!!!”

Aleist swung his sword horizontally, then vertically… As Rudel evaded each strike, he also channeled mana into his own wooden sword. It was a finishing technique modeled after a magic sword. Rudel’s pure mana formed neatly along the shape of the wooden blade, creating the outline of a sword.

Rudel’s magic sword was not particularly long… but when Aleist’s blade came crashing down to finish him, Rudel swung despite being far outside normal sword range. The mana wrapped around his blade vanished, and in its place, Aleist’s magic sword was cleaved apart.

“W-What the hell was that?! I don’t know any technique like that… That’s cheating!”

Just as Aleist tried to protest to the referee, Rudel had already closed the distance. Aleist hurriedly blocked with his wooden sword, but both weapons had apparently reached their limits and shattered the instant they collided.

“R-Referee! Our wooden swords are broken. Stop the match for a—gh!”

The moment the wooden swords shattered, Rudel immediately switched to hand-to-hand combat. Aleist evaded using the martial arts talent granted to him, but Rudel’s overwhelming intensity made him flinch. The seriousness in Rudel’s eyes frightened him.

(Why?! Why is this happening?! This is my world, isn’t it… Isn’t this supposed to be the world where I’m the protagonist?!)

The two exchanged highly advanced hand-to-hand techniques, but Aleist continued being forced backward. Despite his strength, he had lost the battle of spirit and could do nothing but defend. Forced to block over and over, Aleist remembered his previous life. …The truth of the life he had lived before reincarnation, when he had been bullied day after day.

(I was bullied every single day… Then I died in an accident and finally got reincarnated into the world of a game I loved! I even got cheat abilities! I got status! I’m not ugly anymore either! …So why? Why am I still being… Why are you bullying me here too!!!)

Rudel’s fist slammed into Aleist’s face. Aleist was sent flying and ended up sprawled across the ring. It was a scene no different from his previous life.

(I’m scared! I’m scared! I’m scared! …Am I going to be bullied again? By a stepping-stone character like him…)

Rudel did not attack Aleist while he remained down. But he stood directly in front of him. Terrified, Aleist could not even bring himself to look up at Rudel.

All around them, the crowd screamed encouragement for Aleist… while hurling abuse at Rudel. Amid those voices,

“Get up! Why aren’t you fighting, Aleist!!!”

Rudel’s tightly clenched fist trembled. Whether from anger… or perhaps emptiness, Rudel shouted in frustration. His voice only made Aleist shrink back further.

“I don’t care if I lose! Fine, I lose!!!”

At Aleist’s words, the referee moved to declare the match over. But Rudel stopped him.

“Get up! I finally made it this far… What do you think I’ve been chasing you for all this time?! I wanted to win! I wanted you to acknowledge me! But then… Aleist, you’re strong, aren’t you!!!”

As Rudel shouted, the arena fell silent. Amid that bizarre scene, Aleist slowly stood. Tears filled his eyes as he forced his trembling body upright… There was no trace of the hero who had supposedly saved the princess. But there stood a man who had gotten back to his feet.

“Y-You just say whatever you want! Someone like you could never understand how I feel!!! You don’t know how much I’ve… How much someone like you…!!!”

With that, Aleist charged at Rudel. Rudel answered him, and the two began punching each other again. This time, however, their blows were crude and wild, exchanged with little technique.

It was completely different from the sophisticated match they had been fighting until then. It looked more like a children’s brawl. And yet the crowd began cheering them on.

Watching the two beat each other senseless, Second Princess Fina said,

“My, I wonder which of them is winning?”

(What are you wasting time for?! Master, you idiot!!! You were already winning! Just beat that guy already and take the fluffiness to paradise with you!!! …Fluffy Paradise? Fluff-Paradise… Huh? That sounds good!!! Fluff-Paradise! Fluff-Paradise!)

She became increasingly excited all by herself, without her expression changing in the slightest.

Her elder sister, the First Princess, said,

“How barbaric… I dislike that man from House Arses!”

Then the king said,

“Now this is quite the boyish fight. Still… doesn’t this put the heir of House Arses at a disadvantage, my queen?”

The queen’s expression did not change behind her open fan. She continued staring down at the ring below. Perhaps certain that her prediction would not be wrong, she did not answer the king.

The academy principal watched both the royal family and his students. Both fighters were students of his academy. …And so he found himself hoping that whatever the result, this match would ultimately bring something good to both of them…

The two fighters staggered as they continued exchanging punches. Their arms swung wide, and neither blow seemed to have much strength left behind it. Even so, the spectators packed into the arena continued shouting encouragement. Most supported Aleist, but there were undeniably people cheering for Rudel as well.

“Just fall already… Isn’t this enough?!”

Both Aleist and Rudel had terrible-looking faces. Aleist’s punch landed squarely on Rudel’s face. Rudel refused to fall and answered with a punch of his own. Neither of them would give an inch.

But inevitably, they reached their limits. Rudel had already been close to his before the match even began. The only thing keeping him standing now was his refusal to lose. His desire to win was no longer merely about remaining at the academy. …For some reason, Rudel was fixated on Aleist. Even he had realized it. Faced with a feeling he had never experienced before, Rudel stubbornly refused to give in.

Gathering the last of his strength, Rudel wrapped his fist in wind magic… He poured out the last of his mana in an attempt to settle the match. His fist caught Aleist and sent him flying.

The entire arena held its breath as both of them collapsed. Rudel had exhausted both his stamina and mana, while Aleist had been pushed this far for the first time in his life… As neither could rise, the spectators began shouting encouragement.

“Get up, Aleist-sama!!!”

“Don’t lose to someone like him, Aleist-senpai!!!”

“Don’t lose to that idiottttt!!!”

The students cheering for Aleist mocked Rudel. Amid them, however, Bargas and the other upperclassmen shouted to Rudel, roaring their encouragement at the top of their lungs.

“Don’t you dare lose, Rudel!!! Show them what all that morning training was for!!!”

Luecke and Unias shouted as well. Despite their injuries and the lingering effects of exhausting their mana, they forced themselves to yell! Milia joined them too.

“Don’t you dare lose here, Rudel!!!”

“Get up already! Aren’t you the man who defeated us?!”

“Quit lying around and get back on your feet already!!!”

Hearing the two heirs of the Three Dukes shouting like that, the classmates around them joined in. Rudel’s own class refused to be outdone and raised their voices as well.

“Get up, Rudel!!!”

“You promised we’d stay together from now on!!!”

“Don’t you dare lose to Aleist!!!”

Finally, Izumi shouted at the top of her lungs!

“Are you planning to stay down there, Rudel?! You’re going to become the strongest… the strongest knight, a Dragoon, aren’t you!!!”

Rudel, lying on the ground, pushed his upper body up with his arms, only to collapse again. He repeated it over and over… At that exact moment, a dragon passed directly over the arena. For just an instant, its shadow swept across Rudel. And then…

“That’s right… I decided I would become a Dragoon no matter what! I can’t keep losing if I want to do that… I’ll become stronger! I decided I’d become the strongest Dragoon, one who never loses to anyone!!!”

Rudel rose on trembling legs. The spectators who had been cheering for him erupted in celebration at the sight. Aleist, meanwhile, remained unable to stand. His legs trembled and refused to obey him. Once his heart had accepted defeat, no matter how great his abilities were, he could no longer force himself back to his feet.

“Damn iiiiiit…”

Aleist’s strained voice was drowned out by the cheers for Rudel echoing throughout the arena. At that point, the referee declared the winner.

“Winner, Rudel Arses!!!”

In the VIP box, Fina rose expressionlessly from her chair, clenched both fists, and thrust them toward the heavens in celebration. She even shouted aloud…

“YEEEEES!!! HE WONNNNN!!!”

(Master wonnnnn!!! You’re seriously amazing, Master!!! My heart even skipped a little beat!!! You aren’t even fluffy and you still made my heart skip!!!)

“W-What are you doing, Fina?”

The king stared at his daughter in concern. The queen had dropped her fan, while Aileen stood there with her mouth hanging open in shock. Amid them, the academy principal quietly made a triumphant fist where no one could see.

Down in the arena visible from the VIP box, Rudel’s classmates gathered around their victorious captain. They tried to rush him straight to the infirmary, only for Rudel to insist that the match wasn’t over until the closing ceremony, leading to an argument. …Apparently, he meant he wanted to stay until the very end, but he was clearly so unsteady and exhausted that his mind was no longer functioning properly.

(He overcame it… As for Aleist-kun, I wonder…)

The principal thought about Aleist, who had already been carried away.

Aleist had been taken from the arena on a stretcher. He was told to lie down temporarily in the waiting room, and for now, he was alone. In the empty room, Aleist cried.

“Am I… never going to change, no matter where I am?”

Then one of his classmates entered the room. When Aleist realized it was the student who was always trying to involve himself with him, he frowned. None of his classmates had come until now. Drawing on his experiences of being bullied, Aleist assumed the boy had probably come to mock him.

But…

“Y-You were really close, Aleist. …I’m sure you’ll win next time… That’s what I think.”

The classmate spoke nervously. Even now, he was still trying to become Aleist’s friend. Aleist considered arguing with him, or insulting him… and instead began crying again.

(Ah… What I really wanted was right beside me all along. Why didn’t I notice? I wanted friends. Maybe the reason I loved games where the protagonist was adored by everyone was because I wanted someone to like me too… Why couldn’t I even realize something that simple…)

“A-Aleist! Does it hurt?! I’ll get a doctor right away!”

Watching his classmate run off to fetch a doctor, Aleist listened to the cheers from outside drifting through the open door. …Could I become friends with him someday…? Thinking that, Aleist smiled through his tears.